first breakfast
by Random Ruth
Summary: "Kid," Sam says, and the only minor in the room chews, swallows, and points to his own chest questioningly. "Yeah, you. Just one question: who are you?" (Peter has breakfast at the Compound, or, It's okay to meet your heroes when those heroes are the Avengers!)


It's breakfast time — too early o'clock. The super soldiers have already been up since the ass crack of dawn, running several laps of the compound in the time it took Sam to make it around once.

Now Steve is frying bacon, Natasha is tucking into a bagel, and Sam is sitting next to Bucky at the breakfast table — after early-day antagonism, Sam's warming to the guy — and they're talking, when Tony wanders in to join them. He walks through the door with his nose practically glued to his phone, tapping away at his screen — how he doesn't walk into the doorframe Sam doesn't understand, but he's silently impressed.

All the Avengers know that Tony is not a morning person so they don't bother greeting him, just continue their morning conversations. They've all been out for runs, had their showers, and Tony's just rolled out of bed. He needs a cup of coffee before he's even kind of personable. He tucks his phone into his pocket to make himself a coffee, carries the cup over to the table and sets it down at the far end, as far away from them as it can go. Then he goes back to the counter for his box of cereal and — two bowls?

Sam ponders this for a few moments and then a kid walks in. Does just that — _walks_ in. He looks kinda familiar, and as he looks around at the room and the people in it with wide eyes and a slack jaw, it hits Sam where he's seen him before: this is Tony's intern. Tony has his back to the door, sitting hunched over his phone, so he doesn't see the new arrival come in, but the kid spots him straight away and goes to sit next to him.

Tony nudges the colourful box of cereal in his intern's direction. "Breakfast," is all he says, picking up his coffee to sip at it. The kid is blatantly staring at the other people in the room now, like he can't quite believe that he's here — and he has a point, Sam thinks. _What_ is _he doing here?_

"Oh my god," the kid suddenly gasps, hushed, like being seven feet away from someone equals privacy and everyone in the room won't hear him anyway. "Black Widow eats bagels."

Natasha smirks around a mouthful of bagel and cream cheese.

"Parker, breakfast," Tony says in a slightly commanding tone, setting his phone down. He pours some cereal for himself and then some for the kid too, making sure the kid's bowl is as full as possible.

"Oh my god," the kid gasps, like he's seeing the most amazing thing in the whole wide world. "Captain America _fries bacon_."

"I sure do, champ," Steve replies, flipping his spatula with a flourish.

Tony groans and rolls his eyes in response and pours milk over the two bowls of cereal. Sam can hear the colourful, sugary cereal crackle from where he's sitting. Finally the kid realises there's food in front of him and tucks in.

"Kid," Sam says, and the only minor in the room chews, swallows, and points to his own chest questioningly. "Yeah, you. Just one question: who are you?"

And yeah, maybe he's being a bit blunt, if the look Steve gives him is anything to go by — the dude looks like Sam's mom when she's telling him off for not sharing the Holiday candy.

The kid's mouth flaps open a few times.

"You have my permission to speak," Sam says, doing his best not to laugh at how nervous he is.

"I — I'm — I —"

Tony puts an arm around the kid's shoulders. It could be an act of reassurance but Sam reads it more as _He's mine, back off_. "This is Peter, he's my intern."

"Uh-huh," says Sam, wondering why Tony is suddenly so defensive.

"That's really great," Steve pipes up. "Nice to meet you, Peter, I'm Steve." He goes over to shake the kid's hand, in a man-to-man sort of way.

"I — I know who you are," Peter says, still timid, but he's grinning.

Sam's not dropping it. He tries a different stick. "Why does Peter get to eat your cereal, Tony?"

Peter looks between the two of them with a slight frown, like he's watching a tennis match.

Tony bristles, and Sam can see the words forming on his tongue — It's not like it has my name on it — but it does, they can both see the post-it note on the box from here: _PROPERTY OF TONY STARK, PAWS OFF!_ , underlined three times. "Interns get special privileges," he says instead. "But if you want my Lucky Charms _that_ badly…"

Sam scoffs. "I'm good, thanks."

Breakfast resumes where it left off. Steve has finally finished frying enough bacon for himself, and sits down to a huge cooked breakfast. Steve cooked for Bucky first so Bucky is halfway through his, and Sam's attention turns to the story Bucky's telling about how he saved a spider that was in his bathtub this morning.

Steve's listening like it's the most fascinating story he's ever heard, and Sam gets it, he does — after years and years being brainwashed to kill, any life saved, however small, is a victory — but all Sam's reminded of is, "That Spider-Man, now he was an asshole."

There's a gasp from the far end of the table, a clatter as a spoon drops onto the table. Sam looks up and sees that Peter the intern has clasped his arm around Tony's bicep in a white-knuckled grip. He's practically a blur, he's bouncing up and down so much, and he's grinning so hard his face could fall off.

"Oh my god, oh my god," he mutters quickly, over and over, awestruck, " _Falcon thinks I'm an asshole!_ "


End file.
